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Month: July 2015

The first thing we did on holiday was go to a festival; and what an amazing time I had! There was great music, stalls, food places…but people everywhere! There were two massive tents, in which bands played in. The majority of the bands we heard I had never heard of before, but I would never regret going and watching them, however loud it got inside the tent… (I had to put earplugs in!) On the first day, I looked around all of the stalls, and here are some of the things I brought…

At the entrance gate, we had to collect bracelets to wear, to prove we had payed and were allowed in, I still have mine…

We had brought no food with us, so all of our food had to be brought at the festival. Pizza, pancakes, baguettes… The food was great! The panorama below was one my dad took, before most people had arrived, so you will see that there are no people around.

There were plenty of things for children to so as well; things like art and craft, (for instance tie die, origami and glass art), activities and fun stuff to do. Workshops, (Things like Tai Chi, willow weaving and ukulele) And also places where you get face painted or henna tattoos done.

Loads of the stalls/shops were really good ones, some of them were: artwork stalls, woodwork stalls, sweets stalls; there was a Lush, a bag stall, and a couple of crafty sort of stalls. In one stall, you could make your own engraved leather bookmark or bracelet, using hand tools; you could also go to workshops learning how.

Hi, Today I am going to tell you about one of my favourite games, and why. My favourite game is a game called Trading Pitt, and is a loud and enjoyable family game. Ideally you need four people to play but anything from three to eight is fine.

Instructions:

In your pack you should have eight sets of nine cards, each types of crops, and a bull and bear card.

You deal out the same number of sets as there are people playing, (for instance, if four people are playing choose four sets,) then also add the bull and bear cards. Shuffle and deal them out equally, two people will have one extra card because of the bull and bear.

The aim of the game is to collect a complete set of the cards, which is called a corner. Everyone keeps his/her cards secret from the others, and when you get your cards, you can look at them in private. When you sort them out, (generally into sets…) you must choose which set you wish to collect. When everyone is ready, the dealer shouts, ‘the pit is open!’ and the game begins. You try to exchange different cards in hope to collect more of your chosen set of cards. To do this you shout the number of cards you want to exchange, but all of the cards you in one, must be of the same set, i.e, if you had three hops that you didn’t need, you would shout ‘three, three, three’ until another player shouts the same number. When that happens, you can swap cards, planting them face down next the person so no one else can see the swapped cards.

Each player looks at his new cards, and if he wants to keep them, holds them in his hand, if not goes through the same procession. You can exchange any number of cards from one to eight, as long as they are all from the same set. The only exception they don’t have to be in the same set is if you hold the bull or bear card. If you want to exchange either of them, you can add them on to any set, for example, if you wanted to get rid of two oats, and the bear, you would still shout ‘three, three, three.’ The first player to get a full set of cards, (nine,) they shout corner, and the game is over, they have won. They get the amount of points said on the set of cards, i.e, Barley = 80.

The Bull and Bear cards

If you are holding the bear card in your hand when another player shouts corner, it counts as twenty points against you. If you are holding a bull card when another person shouts corner, it also counts as twenty points against you. But, if you hold the bull card and eight other cards of a set, you can shout ‘Bull corner’ the game is over and you still gain the amount of points in your set. If you hold the bull card but also all nine cards of a set, you shout ‘Double bull corner’ and you win double the points in your set.

At the end you count up the scores, (providing that you have been writing them along as you go,) and the person with the most wins. If you are playing in a four, it is advisable to each take a turn in dealing so you can all have a turn with ten cards instead of nine.

Out of my mind is an amazing book that shows that you should not judge a book by its cover. I found it on a bookshelf in my lounge, a book that my mum had brought but not read yet. I picked it up and started reading, and now I am so glad I did!

Melody is a 11 year old girl with severe cerebral palsy, and although she can’t walk, talk, or do practically anything herself, her brain is buzzing with things to say. No one in the whole school knows this; they just think she’s a troubled child incapable of learning things. Every school day is spent listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons over and over again. But this all changes when her family and her find something that changed her life forever; something that lets her express her own thoughts and feelings….

The author writes out of her own experience with a child of similar difficulties, and really engages the reader to the book. The story has an interesting plot line and shows the real feelings from inside Melody. I would highly recommend this book to anyone of the ages 10+ and I think it is a book that everyone should read someday. From me it gets five stars out of five for a great read and author.